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Getting into the flow writing new material?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

How do people get into the flow of writing new material again when it's been a while? I'm hoping to have a really productive summer research-wise, but I've found myself spinning my gears far more than I'd like. I'd love to hear of any tips, tricks etc. from others who've struggled with this and have found some success combating it. I'd especially love to hear from any fellow ADHDers…

Great question! Another reader submitted the following reply:

I have long struggled with the same issue. What I find helps is a time every day where I just write. It could be 20 minutes, it could be 90. But set time aside every day and have a goal for the session. The goal could be very specific, e.g., finish bibliography or write flowchart for objection. It could be fairly nebulous: free write for 30 minutes about x. But it makes a difference because a) if gets you writing and b) it helps you build better habits, making writing later easier.

This seems like good advice to me. I do something similar, setting a goal of free-writing a certain amount of words each morning (e.g. 500 or 1,000 words). I find that if I do this every day that I do work, I'm usually always moving forward with something while leaving ample time for other things.

Do any other readers have any helpful tips? 

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7 responses to “Getting into the flow writing new material?”

  1. Doesn’t like ambiguous advice

    The question I always have to ask people who give the above advice: What do you mean by “everyday”? Do you mean literally everyday; 365 or 366 days a year? Or do you mean every week day? Or do you mean every day that you treat as a work day? Or something else?

    Reply
  2. Michel

    Doesn’t like ambiguous advice:
    Before having a child, I wrote five days a week and took two days a week off, plus some 2-week breaks in the summer, between the fall and winter semesters, etc. The only hitch was that it could be hard to start working again on Mondays, or after a break. I’d often “lose my place”, so to speak.
    Since having a child, I write every single day (365.25/year). I write every day because every day, my child naps on me. Since I’m pinned down anyway, I may as well get things done. I fit most of my work into my child’s daily nap.
    I look forward to returning to the 5-day schedule in the future (i.e. when the child starts school). But for now, since my time to do stuff is quite limited, getting stuff done every day works well and is not too taxing.

    Reply
  3. Caligula’s Goat

    One additional thing that can help is to collaborate with other people on projects (colleagues, non-philosophers, graduate students, even undergraduate students). There’s something to being held accountable that really drives my own writing and collaboration in general just tends to make my own work better.
    If collaboration doesn’t work out for your project or style there are other ways to have others hold you accountable: get together with friends / academics to work together on your separate projects. I’ve done this virtually (which I didn’t super love) and also in person at local coffee shops (which I super loved) but they’re both better than relying on myself to motivate my own writing.

    Reply
  4. Grad Student

    Two things that worked for me in the past:
    1. Handwriting. Take a pen and paper and start scribbling something. I found out that at least in my case there is something psychologically much less committing in handwriting my thoughts compared to typing them in Word. I don’t know why, but it worked great for me. There’s the annoying later stage of copying your handwritten notes to a doc file, but it doesn’t take that long and usually takes much less than the time needed otherwise to ignite the writing process. Also, when I do it I don’t simply copy but make a second draft out of it. In my case, I have a built-in pen on my computer so I do all the scribbling in OneNote and I highly recommend this practice. It lets me switch from Word to OneNote whenever I feel stuck.
    2. You can ask a friend to chat about your ideas and record your conversation (with the friend’s permission). Sometimes you’ll see that transcription of what you said can be a basis for a draft.

    Reply
  5. Postdoc

    For me, most of my substantive writing comes after I already have gathered and concluded some line of thought. Hence, I tend to read around, form hypotheses, and then plan out papers at a sometimes lengthy ‘brainstorming stage’ – but once they are planned out I can write them super quickly. For example, the first 6k+ words draft of what ended up my writing sample paper when I first went on the market was concluded in one night. That’s extreme even for me, but most of my later research has followed roughly the same pattern.
    In other words, if you are like me, I suggest having a plan in mind when you write. Then you can fill in with the details, revise, etc. But do not write from scratch in a way where you are unsure about where the argument is supposed to go. While I have done this too, it is a much more laborious and frankly annoying process – at least for me.
    This is also why I don’t really understand the advice to write a bit every day: just writing for the sake of writing doesn’t lead me anywhere. It is writing for the sake of fleshing something out that gets me places. And that mostly comes in outbursts of flow in the execution of a prior essay plan. Granted, you could do try to do a bit of that every day too. But you could just as well spend some of your dedicated research time on the brainstorming stage prior to the writing stage.

    Reply
  6. OP

    Thanks, everyone! Lots of helpful tips here. Happy writing to you all!

    Reply
  7. Do Something

    My rule when I’m writing is that I should nearly always be doing something (anything), instead of spinning my gears. I once had a math instructor who said that if you spend more than five minutes without moving your pencil you’re doing it wrong.
    If I can write an outline, that’s great. If not, maybe I can list what I’ve read and some quick takeaways. Or maybe I can just write some takeaways from something I recently read. Or I can read something new, or …

    Reply

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